The complex hybrid engines of the latest Ferrari’s Formula 1 racing cars mean selling them to private buyers is not practical, as the maintenance and repairs are to costly for private ownership unless totally decommissioned

Ferrari announced that it will not sell its retired Y’s 2014, 2015 or 2016 F1 race cars to private buyers, because their complex hybrid drive trains are too costly to maintain, run and repair.

Recently, F1 test driver Marc Gené said the 1.6-litre engines and accompanying hybrid electric motors of the latest cars are not financially viable to keep running.

“They are just too difficult to maintain,” he said. “Just to fly them over, the battery needs some extra safety requirements for the plane. To run, the current engines are very advanced but so expensive.”

The Y 2013 cars, which are currently on sale, use naturally aspirated 2.4-litre V8 engines with smaller electric motor units, while earlier power trains from the pre-hybird era used just V8 or V10 engines. Those cars were comparably simple to run, meaning Ferrari could sell them to customers and run them for a profit.

“At the moment we are selling the 2013 car, but it could well be that those are the last Ferrari F1 cars to be sold,” continued Gené. “That’s why the Formula 1 price is going up, because the market is what it is.”

Ferrari sells its cars via its Corse Clienti program and offers owners hospitality at circuits for driving days with a full team of mechanics to run their machines.

Paul Ebeling

Paul A. Ebeling, polymath, excels in diverse fields of knowledge. Pattern Recognition Analyst in Equities, Commodities and Foreign Exchange and author of “The Red Roadmaster’s Technical Report” on the US Major Market Indices™, a highly regarded, weekly financial market letter, he is also a philosopher, issuing insights on a wide range of subjects to a following of over 250,000 cohorts. An international audience of opinion makers, business leaders, and global organizations recognizes Ebeling as an expert.